Of all the various articles of manufacture, aside from those related to simple machines, articles comprising fabric are most ubiquitous and have been known since antiquity. These articles of manufacture, which comprise fabric are most readily found in the form of substrates, inter alia, clothing (apparel), furniture surfaces, shoelaces, draperies. The fabric comprising said substrates can be either natural material, for example, cotton, wool, and the like, or synthetic material, for example, polyester. The substrates can be rigid, flexible, a combination of both.
Important among substrates comprising fabric are articles of manufacture, which relate to clothing and other forms of wearing apparel. Manufacturers have used natural, synthetic, and mixtures thereof to form modem fibers that comprise the fabric. For wearing apparel per se, cotton is both functional and comfortable, thereby providing an inexpensive, renewable source of material. Synthetic fibers, alone or admixed with natural fibers, provide durability and wear properties, which are an improvement over fully natural fabric. For example, certain synthetic fabrics and blends do not exhibit the propensity to wrinkle like cotton. Nor do synthetic fabrics stain in the manner that natural fabrics stain.
Substrates comprising fabric can be classified into two categories: those comprising units having reactable units, inter alia, cotton, and those which have non-reactive or less reactive units, inter alia, polyester. For example, the hydroxyl units that comprise the polysaccharides of cotton can react with foreign substrates, i.e. food, dirt, oils, to form stains of varying durability. Therefore, fabric having these reactable units can become easily adulterated. This adulteration can profoundly affect the aesthetic form of the fabric, for example, color staining. However, fabric can also have bulk properties, which are directly related to its chemical structure, the most prevalent being the tendency of natural fibers, inter alia, cotton, rayon and wool, to shrink.
Manufacturers of substrates comprising fabric have attempted to make use of the reactable nature of some fibers to imbue desirable properties into the final substrates. Permanent press cotton clothing is one example of modifying fabric to provide a benefit. Others include stain resistance, flame retardance, and enhanced whiteness (optical brightness). However, these improvements can have offsetting consequence. For example, many of the processes that apply permanent press modifiers are conducted under strongly acidic conditions, conditions which cause 50% or more of the natural fiber strength to be lost. In addition, fabric properties which are enhanced may be short-lived, and when this fact is coupled with, in many instances, diminished fiber strength, the overall effect is a lessening of the overall fabric quality. Also, the addition of anti-static or softening agents can change the softness profile of fabric thereby increasing the tendency of fabric to prematurely abrade.
There is a long felt need for a fabric comprising substrate having enhanced properties which do not sacrifice one desirable property in order to obtain one or more other desirable fabric properties.